Anxiety levels in adolescents who stutter

Abstract

High levels of anxiety can negatively affect the lives of children and adolescents. Thirty-six adolescents who stutter and 36 adolescents who do not stutter were administered standardized scales for anxiety and self-esteem. Significant differences were found for the total T-scores for Revised Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale for the two groups, although both groups mean T-scores were within normal range. Eighty-three percent of adolescents who stutter and 95% of adolescents who do not stutter earned scores in the normal range. No significant differences were found on the self-esteem scale, with 86% of adolescents who stutter and 97% of adolescents who do not stutter earning scores in the normal/positive range. Adolescents who stutter with co-occurring disorders displayed significantly higher levels of anxiety than adolescents who stutter with no co-occurring disorders. No significant differences were found between groups on ethnicity, socioeconomic class, gender and anxiety levels. A positive, significant correlation between anxiety scores and self-esteem scores was found for both groups.Learning outcomes: Readers will learn about and understand (a) the role of anxiety and selfesteem in stuttering; (b) the methods used to evaluate anxiety and self-esteem in adolescents; and (c) the similarities between adolescents who stutter and adolescents who do not stutter on anxiety and self-esteem scales. #

Social anxiety and the severity and typography of stuttering in adolescents

“…The finding that adolescents who stuttered displayed significantly higher trait, state and social anxiety than did control participants is consistent with results obtained by Blood et al (2007), whereby significant differences were reported on a generalised anxiety scale between adolescent participants who did and did not stutter. This suggests that adolescents who stutter are at risk of developing higher levels of anxiety than their fluent peers.…”

“…It is possible that rather than playing a mediating role in stuttering, increased anxiety among adolescents who stutter is, in fact, a by-product of the stuttering disorder regardless of its surface manifestation. Blood et al (2007) also found no significant correlation between a standard anxiety measure and stuttering severity. The present study therefore supports their findings and suggests that an association is not observed even when stuttering typography is taken into account.…”

“…Their data, however, were limited to trait anxiety and the role of social anxiety and attitude toward communication in daily situations was not investigated. Results from a study by Blood et al (2007) demonstrated no significant correlations between a standard anxiety measure and the severity of stuttering in adolescents who stuttered. Results from Blood, Blood, Tellis, and Gabel (2001), however, showed the severity of stuttering as measured by the Stuttering Severity Instrument (Riley, 1994) to be significantly, positively correlated with communication apprehension in adolescent participants as measured by the Personal Report of Communication Apprehension (McCroskey, 1984) and the Self-Perceived Communication Competence scales (McCroskey & McCroskey, 1988).…”

“…There is evidence that fluent children as young as 3 years of age recognise stuttering in their peers and that they may evaluate stuttering negatively as early as 4 years of age (Ezrati-Vinacour & Levin, 2004). Conflicting and variable responses from fluent communication partners and negative communication experiences have also been reported in adults who stutter (Blood, Blood, Maloney, Meyer, & Qualls, 2007;Cooper & Cooper, 1996;Kraaimaat, Vanryckeghem, & Van Dam-Baggen, 2002;Miller & Watson, 1992). Adults who stutter have demonstrated significantly greater expectancy of social harm than those who do not stutter (Davis et al, 2007;Kraaimaat et al, 2002;Messenger et al, 2004) and concerns about publicly acknowledging and discussing stuttering have been reported in adolescents who stutter (Blood, Blood, Tellis, & Gabel, 2003;Hearne, Packman, Onslow, & Quine, 2008).…”

“…Considering the association between communication and anxiety, it appears that social anxiety potentially mediates the surface features of stuttered events in daily communication (Messenger et al, 2004). Limited evidence exists for such a relationship although it has been suggested in a range of literature (Alm & Risberg, 2007;Blood et al, 2007;Conture et al, 2006;Davis et al, 2007;Messenger et al, 2004). A study by Davis et al (2007), for example, found that adults with persistent stuttering had higher state anxiety than a control and a recovered group, which provides experimental evidence for the suggested mediating role of anxiety in stuttering.…”